For those who are not familiar with French pop culture, this is still worthwhile to see, but just so you know, Mylène Farmer is the Madonna of France, and Laurent Boutonnat made the videoclips that spiralled her to fame - very French mini-movies which feature erotic fantasies in a historical setting.
The fame from these clips, often considered the best music videos ever made, enabled Boutonnat to mount such a large production of 80 million francs, that is to say 12 million euros. He did not just direct and write the script, he also produced and wrote the score. So of course he had to fail! He was in control of the whole project, which explains its ridiculous runtime, and the waste of buckets of money on a superfluous appearance by Louise Fletcher, who was the nurse in "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", and the construction of sets in mid-winter Czech Republic, which could not be used because the camera lens froze over.
But this is perhaps the most glorious failure in the history of film. It is so pretentious that you just can't help being drawn into its mystery. Most critics complain about the suspense petering away - the protagonist asks "what happened to the children" at least a dozen times -, but it's actually a fascinating experience, like watching the video of a car crash in slow motion. VERY slow motion.
Boutonnat succeeds in almost immediately building up a lot of atmosphere, and then just leaves the viewer there, in an uncomfortable tight space. But one really gets sucked into this feeling of being lost that the protagonist has. Since the whole film doesn't go anywhere, one stays glued to the seat, asking oneself: "Why am I still watching this?" Because it's already about the experience, not the story. I'm pretty sure that's precisely what Boutonnat wanted to achieve, and that the film flopped was probably intentional. This is a film that says: "This is art. Take it or leave it. Don't bother me with your expectations."
